Left the house just before 9 AM to get a start on the day. We meandered along the streets of Kyoto east of Shane's house, occasionally stopping to admire the surroundings. We stopped by Heian-jinju to check out the shrine and get more information about the Takigi No festival (Drama performance by firelight at night) that was going on tonight & tomorrow evening. They were currently setting up seating and the stages. We determined it would cost 4,000 yen so made a mental note and went on our way eastward towards the hills.
Eventually we made it to the start of Tetsugaku-no-michi, or Path of Philosophy. The path is a 1.8 km stroll along a canal between Nyakouji and Ginkaku-ji bridges at the base of the hills in east Kyoto. It obtained it's name from being the favorite walk of Kyoto University's philosophy professor Kitaru Nishida in the first half of the 20th century. It was a beautiful stroll. It was lined with maple and cherry trees; it must be very popular in the spring and fall.
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| Kyoto |
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| Kyoto |
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| Typical house in Kyoto |
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| The Path of Philosophy |
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| Bridge over the canal on the Path of Philosophy |
The path ended at Ginkaku-ji, or the Silver Pavilion. Ginkau-ji is a zen temple originally built in 1482 by 8th Muromachi Shogunate Ashikaga Yoshimasa to be where he spent his retirement. He followed his grandfather's idea, who built Kinkaku-ji, or the Golden Pavilion, but he died before the silver leaf could be plated onto the building. The zen garden was fantastic. The rocks were built up in amazing shapes representing the sea and Mt. Fuji. Definitely my favorite place so far; absolutely beautiful. We stopped by one of the ice cream shops on the way out. They had amazing flavors such as mango, brown tea, and green tea. Mom ordered mango, I ordered brown tea, and Shane ordered mango/brown tea/green tea combo. It was very delicious - I like Japanese ice cream!!
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| Ginkaku-ji, the Silver Pavilion |
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| Wet garden at Ginkaku-ji |
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| Kyoto view above Ginkaku-ji |
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| Delicious Japanese ice cream! |
We had about 25 mins to get to Nijo JR train station to meet up with Shane's music sensei Chieko so we booked it down the street while eating our ice cream. We made it a number of blocks before realizing we did not have enough time to walk there so we flagged a taxi to take us the rest of the way. We arrived at the platform just in time to catch the train out to Arashiyama. Cheiko wanted to take us on the Hozu-Gawa river trip. At the Arashiyama train station we bought tickets to ride the locomotive train up the Hozu River to the small town of Kameoka. The train was fun and the Hozu river gorge was beautiful, thick with forest. At Kameoka, we took a bus to the river, loaded onto some boats, and set adrift the Hozu river. We saw all sorts of wildlife including turtles and numerous birds such as cranes and birds of prey. The two hour trip was wonderful. It was an easy ride because the river had been altered as far back as 794 A.D. so that Japanese cedars and cypress logs could be floated downstream to the newly transferred capital of Kyoto. Because of the thriving log floating business, the river had been modified for a smooth float down the river. No one was wearing a life jacket; one guy was wearing a suit! Fabulous trip!
We finished the boat ride in Arashiyama and walked around the town for a while. We found the bamboo forest, it was huge! Bamboo stalks as wide as my head and 40 ft tall! We walked around Seiryo-ji buddhist shrine, then we took Chieko out to dinner to thank her for being our tour guide. We caught the JR train back into Kyoto. It was a lovely day!
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| Train ride to Kameoka |
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| Group photo on the float down the Hozu river |
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| Merchant boats selling drinks and snacks would approach the boats |
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| Bamboo forest |
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| Japanese graveyard |
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